Reports

We present a retrospective analysis of California’s greenhouse gas emissions to assess how the state has achieved faster-than-expected emissions reductions, meeting its 2020 emissions reduction goal four years early in 2016.

To aid in understanding the range of possible outcomes for the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) cap-and-trade program, we built WCI-RULES, an open-source model that allows users to explore a wide range of scenarios

Summary Near Zero submitted a comment letter to the California Energy Commission on its AB 1110 Implementation Rulemaking for the Power Source Disclosure Program. We appreciate the effort the Commission has put into updating the PSD Program to account for the...

Near Zero comments on the serious risk that excess allowances in the cap-and-trade program will frustrate its ability to deliver the emission reductions called for in the 2017 Scoping Plan, a potential loophole in the proposed definition of “direct environmental benefits” for carbon offsets, and the need to work toward a science-based policy strategy.

Near Zero's open-source model of the Western Climate Initiative cap-and-trade program is intended to help project, analyze, and track market outcomes. It allows users to explore the future market supply and demand balance through 2030, based on users' assumptions...

Media

“There’s no question a well-designed regulation on oil and gas can have an effect,” said Danny Cullenward, a Stanford researcher and policy director at Near Zero, a climate policy think tank. “And that was traded away for a weak cap-and-trade program.” Covering California’s cap-and-trade program, Lisa Song of ProPublica spoke with Near Zero’s Danny Cullenward.

Results from the May 2019 WCI auction are now available. Both current and advance auctions sold out in full, at prices slightly higher than in recent auctions. The current auction settled at its highest price ever, $17.45, noticeably higher than the...

In his capacity as the Senate appointee to the state’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, Near Zero’s Danny Cullenward testified before a California Senate Environmental Quality Committee hearing.